The city of San Francisco sits at the tip of a five-mile-wide neck of land commonly referred to as the Peninsula . Home of old money and new technology, the peninsula stretches for fifty miles of relentless suburbia south from San Francisco along the bay, winding up in the futuristic roadside landscape of the so-called "Silicon Valley" near San Jose .

There was a time when the region was largely agricultural, but the continuing computer boom - spurred by Stanford University in Palo Alto - has replaced the orange groves and fig trees of yesteryear with office complexes and parking lots. Surprisingly, however, most of the land along the coast - separated from the bayfront sprawl by a ridge of redwood-covered peaks - remains rural and undeveloped; it also contains some of the best beaches in the Bay Area, well worth a day-trip from San Francisco.

Peninsula

• Peninsula

Explore Peninsula

• Palo Alto
• Peninsula Coast
• San Jose

California cities


All U.S. city guides